paleofuture.tv [apocalypse]

The shiny happy futurism of the 1950s gave way to much darker predictions for humanity in the 1970s. With energy crises, fears of terrorism and skyrocketing unemployment, it's really no wonder that Americans of the 1970s were often pessimistic about the future. 

Out of this dread, the apocsploitation film was born. 

Movies like Future Shock and The Late Great Planet Earth served up apocalyptic visions of the American future, both secular and religious. The second episode of paleofuture.tv looks at the doomsday documentary films of this era, which strangely enough all seemed to be hosted by Orson Welles. The production values in this episode still leave much to be desired, but I hope you enjoy it!

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• paleofuture.tv [food]
• Future Shock (1972)
• The Late Great Planet Earth (1976)
• Doomsday 1999 A.D. (1981)
• Nuclear Holocaust Before 1999
• The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon
• The Prophetic Year 2000 (1968)
• Future Shock - Babytorium (1972)
• Future Shock - Electrical Stimulation (1972)
• Future Shock - Skin Color (1972)
• The Population Bomb: Scenario 1 (1970)
• The Population Bomb: Scenario 2 (1970)
• The Population Bomb: Scenario 3 (1970)

Comments

[Jim Powers]

Great stuff. I love Hal Lindsay, he's still rambling about the end of the world (and it's imminent arrival!) on the Christian networks. "The Late Great Planet Earth" is currently in it's umpteenth printing with the text unchanged, blaming the Soviet Union and "Red China" for siding with Satan and causing the end of the world. Hilarious. I can only imagine your grandchildren running a blog (or it's equivalent in 2041) talking about the Y2K and 2012 paranoia. Good stuff.

[Tony Neville]

And YouTube sayeth "This video is not available in your country" which is New Zealand in my case. I have no idea why you would want to limit your viewership! Anyway, I installed a U.S. proxy software plugin and I have to say episode 00001 Apocalypse was riveting. Can't wait for the full length documentary. ;-)